The Frostflow Horror
by Tyranidlord
Summary: Sos do Dov (Part 12) During their journey to Winterhold and its College, Kaius and his companions are forced to take shelter with Habd and his family in their Lighthouse home during a snowstorm. The true danger however doesn't exist within the billowing snow, but within the depths of the earth...
1. Blizzard

The snow swirled and billowed around them, pressing in close and whipping itself into a frenzy as the shifting air currents twisted it this way and that. It buffeted the tiny group trudging their way through the rising banks, forcing their heads down and turning each of their worlds into nothing more than an endless sea of white particles, bone numbing cold and the shadowed forms of their comrades.

"Gods, why is it so cold?"

Dragging her feet through the indentations left by her other companions, Sofia spared a glance upwards at the heavy furs and travelling pack on Lydia's back and sighed loudly to make herself heard over the roaring wind. "I don't know Lydia... Maybe it's because we're in the middle of a blizzard… In the Pale; the frozen butthole of Tamriel?"

Whether the housecarl had chosen to ignore Sofia's bitter sarcasm in her customary fashion or whether the words had been snatched away by the wind was uncertain but Lydia gave no reply. She instead continued every onwards in Kaius' footsteps. Literally in this case as the building snow was almost shin deep in places and Kaius' footprints offered a slightly easier passage.

Kaius' armoured form stalked only a few short metres ahead and the trio continued on. His vampirism seemed to allow him to ignore the increasing difficulty of the building snow, simply striding through it as though it didn't exist. While neither of them would admit it, he was allowing Lydia and Sofia in turn to follow in the minor trench he left in his path.

Visibility had been steadily decreasing with every minute that passed since they found themselves caught in the storm. What had appeared to have been a typical summer day in Skyrim had soon proven that the province truly was as dangerous as its reputation. The clouds had built over the Sea of Ghosts as the afternoon drew nearer, and soon they found themselves stuck in the middle of a late summer blizzard and a dozen kilometres or more away from the nearest village of Hob's Fall. Even the nearest moss and lichen covered hill that could offer the slightest hint of shelter was thousands of meters to their south and the way that they were being blinded by the snow left no doubt that if they turned away from the road that they would very likely find themselves in frozen graves.

In front Kaius a shadow appeared from the rolling banks, moving towards them with a strange gracefulness that was totally unmatched in the way that the three of them were struggling to drag their feet free with every step. While heavily dressed in furs like them, there was still the underlying hint of femininity in the movements that brought Serana closer to them.

"There's a building nearby."

Despite the fact that Serana was shorter than him, Kaius had to tilt his head upwards to look Serana in the eye. Unlike him and the others she stood almost entirely upon the surface of the snow, which was a fact that was making Sofia more and more jealous as her boots filled up with slush. The ancient vampiress had an incredible affinity with the cold, and while Sofia and Lydia were both born and raised in the heart of Skyrim, they couldn't contend with the ancient Volkihar vampire.

"How close?"

The thick woollen scarf and its outer wrapping of leather and hide was pulled down and there was the hint of porcelain-white flesh and blood red lips as she gestured into the white expanse before them. "About three hundred metres. Looks to be a tower of some kind."

Kaius' nod was barely visible in the sheer amount of furs he was clad in. Vampire or not, he seemed to absolutely detest the cold with a passion that was only matched by his hatred for the Thalmor and the Aldmeri Dominion. "Inhabited?"

"There's smoke rising from the chimney. I think…"

'Good enough for me. We won't last much longer out here."

Serana turned and began leading the way, the lengthy travel case for her bow swinging in the breeze on her back and bouncing off her travelling pack. In the weeks since they had left the Dawnguard she had proven considerably adept at using a bow that was not entirely her vampiric nature. She soon proved herself to be Kaius' equal in skill and ability, a fact that made him mumble something about '_not using a bow properly for decades_' before allowing her to hunt for food during their journey. She had thrown herself into the role with an almost worrying zeal once Kaius had taught her how to use her vampirism to hunt and there had been more than one occasion where they had feasted on deer or wild cattle for dinner.

The other three continued to force their way in Serana's direction as she led them to the building she had spotted, each watching enviously as her boots barely sunk past the soles in the fresh snow with each step. It took them some time to retrace her path but soon the darkened mass of stone and mortar was visible through the whiteness.

It was enormous, over a dozen stories in height but seeming thin in width. It had been built a long time ago judging by how weather beaten the stones were that it was made from. Many years had passed since its construction and it had stood resolute through the worst storms that the sea of ghosts could throw at it.

"What is this place?" Serana said, loud enough for them to hear her over the howling wind as it noticeably increased in intensity.

"A lighthouse." Muffled from the thick scarf and mask, Kaius' voice was barely audible from the way that he had attempted to cover every centimetre of flesh from the howling wind and the rapidly dropping temperatures.

Similarly muted, the metallic rapping of the heavy ring mounted to the lighthouse's door struggled to be heard to the small group but they all pressed in close in an attempt to get themselves out of the wind. For what felt like an age there was no reply, and Kaius obviously seemed to be struggling to decide whether he should try knocking again or force entry as the tiny shutter was pulled open and a similarly rugged up face peered out at them all.

For a moment there was the obvious sight of fear in the woman's eyes as she beheld the four of them huddling near the door and the obvious bulges and shapes under their furs and cloaks that revealed that they were armed. She too was rugged up to protect herself from the cold that immediately assaulted the building's interior the second she opened the hatch, but the eyes were bright and calculating.

"Stormcloaks or Imperials?" She asked simply and the eyes turned to Kaius as he shifted forward slightly and dragged his mask down over his goateed face.

"Neither. We're travellers on the road to Winterhold. We seek shelter from the storm."

Despite the biting wind and cold, the others followed Kaius' example and revealed their faces to the woman behind the door and she nodded once before shutting the hatch. For a moment it was quiet and it was more than just Kaius who began considering kicking the door down before the sound of bolts being dragged back made themselves heard over the wind.

It didn't take them long at all to shuffle through the doorway into the lighthouse's interior when it was opened and even less for the door to be slammed shut against the biting wind. There was also not much space just inside the outer door as the space was little more than an entry hall with another thick oaken door separating the Lighthouse's interior from the frozen landscape surrounding it.

"Oh gods I am glad to be inside!" Sofia's exclamation was suddenly loud within the enclosed space as she practically tore her hood off and shook a considerable amount of snow off her cloak and travelling pack.

Kaius too pulled his hood away but had turned to their host who was standing near the interior door pulling her own scarf away. "Thank you. We're sorry to intrude like this but the storm caught us off guard."

"It's not in me to leave folks caught in the snow unless they mean to rob us." There was hardness in the woman that was as noticeable as her dark yokundan flesh. "And I guess that if you were meaning to rob us you wouldn't have bothered to knock first. I'm Ramati."

"Kaius." He turned and gestured to the three women taking off their packs and unclasping their heavy fur lined cloaks and outer layers. "My companions are Lydia, Serana and Sofia."

They each nodded or bowed slightly to the whip-thin Redguard woman who had permitted them entry. A hint of a welcoming smile was on her face but it changed to concern when she saw the way that all of them bar Serana were shivering and beginning to turn blue.

"By the breath of Tava. You all better get out of those clothes unless you want to catch your death." She moved closer to the interior door as the group looked about themselves and felt the way that the snow and traces of sleet had begun soaking through their furs.

As the interior door was flung open the tiny entrance was suddenly filled with light and a rolling wave of heat from a hearth large enough to roast an entire deer and Ramati stepped through whistling loudly.

"Yes ma?"

"Where's your father?"

The tall framed teenager shrugged his shoulders and gestured vaguely to the roof above their heads. "Upstairs seeing to the fire."

"Get your sister and grab all the spare towels and the cloaks from our room and bring them here. We have guests."

With a nod and a curious glance in the direction of the entrance he turned and bellowed a loud "_Sudi!_" at the top of his lungs that invoked an annoyed sigh from his mother as she turned back to the group.

"You're welcome to stay the night. These storms are usually short lived but they are dangerous. I expect it to be cleared in the morning."

"You have our thanks." Kaius said as he began pulling at the straps to his plated chest piece and pauldrons. Ramati's eyes were drawn to each and every one of them as they began shedding their layers. There was doubt just how heavily armed and armoured they were but it was equally obvious that they were no Stormcloaks or Imperial soldiers. "We certainly don't intend on intruding on you and your family for any longer than we need to."

Kicking her boots off next to the pile of discarded clothing and armour, Sofia groaned and tried rubbing the circulation back into her toes after her boots had filled with half melted snow. Unlike the others, her equipment had ended up wherever it had been dropped, which was in stark contrast to the perfectly neat arrangement that Serana was making on a clothes rank, the precise and efficient layout of Kaius' and the orderly way that Lydia had placed hers. The snow and slush had soaked most of them right down to their under layers and they all took the opportunity to remove their armour and chainmail that gleamed with moisture.

The teenager returned quickly, his arms filled with a collection of rough spun towels and with a younger girl half his size at his heels carrying some spare clothing. At the sight of Kaius and the three women he came to a skidding halt, especially as Sofia dragged her chainmail off with a series of expletives that left her wearing little more than a strip of cloth across the chest.

"Um… F-father's coming down." he stammered, his eyes almost falling out of his head as he found himself faced with three women in various stages of undress. Between Sofia and Lydia especially there was little in the way of modesty from either of them, but Serana was obviously hanging back with her damp cloak wrapped tightly around herself at the teenager and his sister's presence.

Ramati caught her son's expression and saw where his eyes were wandering as Lydia took one of the towels. The housecarl had a physique that could only be described as _Amazonian_ that was also compounded by the way her head was half shaved. Several of her braids were hanging down where they had been cut short at the jawline, but it was obvious that her son was looking everywhere but the Nordic woman's eyes.

"Mani!"

The Redguard heritage they all shared was obvious as the sixteen-year-old darkened further with embarrassment and managed to pick his jaw off the floor. Like all mothers, Ramati had a very particular glare reserved for naughty children and rebellious teens and she directed it in full fury at her son.

Quickly stammering an apology with his eyes firmly fixed on the floor, the boy turned and vanished through the doorway with his sister following close behind. Between the giggle and the highly amused "you looked at boobies" from the younger girl, Sofia's face was broken into an enormous grin and Kaius too seemed to be holding back a smile of his own. Only Serana looked increasingly uncomfortable, as Lydia remained as cold and aloof as she normally did.

Between the collection of towels and the spare cloaks and tunics provided by the family, they were soon able to shed their soaked or otherwise damp clothing. More out of annoyance at her son's reaction to finding three attractive women in their home, Ramati had closed the door to allow them to change in peace while she went about setting up the drying racks near the hearth to allow their clothes to dry. By the time that the group of them emerged from the tiny entryway a handful of firewood had been added to the fire that went a long way towards thawing the cold from their extremities.

The Redguard family were hospitable enough with the sudden appearance of four heavily armed and armoured travellers arriving at the door in the middle of a storm but the initial tension was dispelled when Kaius supplied their latest catch of snow hares to be added to the evening meal. The family's larder was well stocked and prepared for the coming winter months and none of the group liked the idea of eating into the winter stocks.

Sofia's stash of mead and other assorted alcohol was also provided along with a considerable amount of grumbling from her. Months before they had left Whiterun to travel to Ustengrav she had utilised Farengar's services to enchant her travelling pack with various magicka that lessened its weight and the items within it. While Kaius ensured that she carried more than just alcohol there was a considerable collection locked away into her pack that most normal people would have struggled to drink over two or three weeks. For Sofia it was just enough to ensure that she made it between towns.

The wind continued howling for the hours after their arrival but those within could barely hear it through the thick stone walls. It allowed them all to talk and converse normally without struggling to be heard or to hear each other and before long they were all deep in conversation. Although Ramati's husband Habd was their lighthouse keeper, it was the family of four's responsibility to ensure that during the nights and storms such as this that the fire burned brightly. The cliffs that the Lighthouse was built atop may have only been a dozens of metres high, it was still dangerous that ships and their sailors would have met their watery deaths in the frigid Sea of Ghosts without its guiding light.

"You don't seem to be the typical travellers heading to Winterhold or the college. None of you have the look of mages about you."

Kaius nodded to Habd, Ramati's husband and father of their two children. He was much older in appearance than Kaius with his salt and pepper beard and the hint of grey hairs scattered through his scalp but only Kaius' companions knew just how much looks could be deceiving.

"I dabble a little. A bit of restoration goes a long way, as does being able to light a fire without needing a tinderbox or flints."

The expression on Habd's face was light, as was his wife's as they looked between the group sharing their table. Their son was trying his hardest to look without appearing to look at the women accompanying Kaius, a fact that Sofia was enjoying a little too much as she twisted in her seat and sat in a specific way to draw the male eye. She was however making her own attempts not to catch Kaius' gaze as she knew that he knew exactly what she was doing.

"I can fully understand that. No man would want to go without fire in the north. I might have had a few dealings with the College myself when they enchanted the light upstairs but I still have a professional dislike for mages."

"Professional dislike?" Leaning forward, Kaius slid a bottle of Black-Briar mead to the Redguard who nodded his thanks to the mercenary.

"Aye. It was a mage after all that holed my ship during the war. I don't think a man exists who appreciates swimming to shore as their home goes under the waves."

"You were a sailor?" Serana's voice was quiet in the room but her eyes were bright and gleaming with interest.

Ramanti nodded. "Until a few years ago we all were. Habd served in the navy during the war before joining the crew of a trader out of Gilane. We met on board the sprint trader _Deliverance_ and sailed together for…"

Her glance to Habd made him stop in mid motion of swallowing his mouthful of mead and he wiped his mouth. "Sixteen years. Lived on board the ship for the majority of it. neither of us were getting any younger so we decided to plant roots."

"What in the Gods names' made you decide on Skyrim of all places?"

There was a pair of laughs from the Redguard couple at Sofia's exclamation. "The Deliverance sailed between Windhelm and Gilane trading spices and ebony." The expression on Habd's face was one of contentment as he continued sampling Sofia's mead. "We got used to seeing this lighthouse on the journey and decided that if we were to have a home anywhere, then we may as well have it near the sea. The benefit here as well is that the only damned elves we see are the odd one or two heading to and from the college."

"I can drink to that." Kaius' mutter was only just audible as he did just that, taking his own mouthful of alcohol. "I'm not one for the cold though."

"Speaking of cold." A chair creaked as the retired sailor leaned back and glanced in the direction of the living room and the hearth. "Those rabbits of yours should be getting close to defrosted. I hope you don't mind giving me a hand cleaning them."

"That'll be my pleasure." Leaning over and ignoring Sofia's yelped complaint, Kaius plucked another bottle from her pack sitting next to her chair with one of his usual amused smiles before following the aging Redguard in the direction of the kitchen.

"So, you were a legionary?"

Moving over to one of the benches, Kaius had placed the rabbits on the kitchen's chopping board in preparation for skinning and gutting them. "I was. A long time ago."

"Looks like it." Habd motioned to Kaius' ancient legion brand covered by the old and faded burn scars. "You have seen a lot as well."

"More than others." The knife was dragged from his belt and Kaius begun the process of skinning the creatures. "Although the last time I served the Empire was the battle of the Red Ring."

Stopping in place, the aging Redguard fixed Kaius with a stare that was almost entirely suspicion as he took in the younger looking man sharing the kitchen. "The Red Ring… You're a little too young to have fought in the great war."

Inwardly, Kaius cursed himself for the slip. His vampirism left him effectively ageless but he had noticed that over the two centuries he had lived his perception of time was steadily changing. The three decades since the end of the great war felt like a few years to him.

As the moment's silence dragged on, Habd's expression softened as he took Kaius' reaction in with growing realisation. "You were one of Mede's child legionaries."

Kaius didn't dissuade him of the fact, twisting the first of the rabbits around and pulling back the fur as he sliced the skin away. The old sailor nodded to himself, deciding that his judgement was sound and providing Kaius with a fatherly expression.

"Most Redguards hate the Empire for abandoning Hammerfell in the war, but I don't think that there are many that don't understand the reasons why. You're proof of the efforts that Mede and the Empire were taking to fight the Dominion. Recruiting kids and training them to kill? You don't do that unless the need is very dire indeed."

"What was your role in the war?"

"Me?" Habd scooped up a cooking pot and began filling it with water. A clever pipe arrangement allowed water to pour through from the watertank built into the walls above the hearth. It allowed the family to have access to water without much need for melting snow during the winter. "Ship's carpenter. Served on a Man-o-War for until she was sunk at least. By the time me and the others who made it to shore reached a city we found that peace had been signed. Walked away from the navy but couldn't walk away from the sea."

The first rabbit was skinned and with a few gestured Habd pointed out the portable rack that he had for hanging skins and carcasses. "So you joined a trading ship and met your wife on board?"

"Aye. That I did. She was the ships tailor and sail-maker. Somehow I caught her eye and before we really knew it Mani was born. For a year or so after he was born she remained in port but they joined me soon after. A few years later we had Sudi and it went well for us. Never did quite make it to captain but I retired as first mate."

"I've been a mercenary all my life." Kaius replied, cutting into the second hare. "For the most part. One day I might find some measure of peace."

There was no mistaking the inflection of sorrow and bitterness in his tone and Habd again looked almost fatherly to the man he thought to be his junior. "We all deserve some peace in our lives. Judging by the amount of scars you have you deserve peace more than most."

"It's not the first time someone has told me that."

"Then maybe you should listen more."

Both men grinned at the sarcasm and the rabbits were quickly deboned, their flesh sliced up into pieces and added to the stew that would serve as their evening meal. The old sailor spared little in the way of vegetables, spices and other materials for the meal, but it would take a few hours for the rabbit meat to cook thoroughly.

Hanging the pot over the hearth to heat and boil, the two men returned to the dining room where Habd's daughter was practically bounding around the room in excitement. At Kaius' appearance she practically exploded in his direction, skidding to a halt in front of him and bouncing on her toes.

"You're Kaius Desin! You're the Dragonborn."

His own look of surprise mirrored Habd's as they looked between the twelve-year-old girl and the other women sitting around the table. In particular, Kaius' eyes turned to Sofia, who put her hands in the air and laughed.

"Hey, don't look at me. She guessed it herself."

Seeing his reaction, Sudi giggled and bounced even more, turning to look at her brother sitting sullenly in his chair. "_HA!_ Told you Mani!"

"Yeah, yeah. You were right. You can't be right all the time."

"You've heard of the Dragonborn?" Kaius asked the young girl.

"Of course! Who hasn't! I know of all of your stories, how you slew the Wyrm of Whiterun after it slaughtered a hundred soldiers!"

"It was more like twelve…"

"And the way you battled the dragon upon the hills of Kynesgrove for three days and three nights."

"Maybe not for quite that long..."

"Mani says that the stories aren't true, that they are just make believe. He says that you can't really talk like a dragon."

Seeing the exasperated expressions on both of her parents, he grinned and knelt down to her height. "Your father says that you all used to live on board of ships and were sailors, is that correct?"

The nod from the tiny girl and smile was even larger than she was.

"Well then." Carefully, he closed his eyes, lips moving of their own accord as he took control of his breathing and concentrated.

"_**Aal fin ven alun aak hi hofkiin.**_" He said softly, the words making themselves felt through the soles of everyone's feet and deep in their belly's and left more than one bottle chiming softly on the table.

Sudi's reaction was one of pure glee, squealing in delight in a reaction that wasn't shared by her family. With one hand covering her mouth in shock, Ramati seemed to struggle with the decision to sit in her chair or to try to move her daughter away from the scarred traveller, and her son was sitting in the chair with his flesh going a waxy colour in his own surprise. Habd too was shocked and jaw fell open as he regarded the man who he had just been preparing dinner with.

"Did you hear that Mani? He can talk dragon!"

Her brother was too shocked to reply as Sudi continued to bounce around the room, her excitement and smile contagious as Kaius' companions were left ginning as well.

"You truly are Dragonborn?" Habd breathed as he moved over and resting a hand on his wife's shoulder to reassure her.

"I am." The expression of the aging Redguard couple's faces was obvious and he smiled warmly. "I don't like announcing it wherever I go. It tends to get me mobbed by the locals."

The echo of a laugh made itself around the room, but Habd and Ramati still looked uneasy. "Is it also true that you were made-"

"A Thane of Whiterun hold?" Kaius finished for them gesturing to the three women accompanying him. "Yes. Lydia is my Housecarl and Sofia and Serana are my travelling companions. But please, I'm just Kaius. The title is more honorary than anything."

Sofia's chuckle of amusement at the way Lydia's expression darkened was not lost on Kaius and he inwardly sighed. His relationship with his housecarl was still very much on shaky ground ever since Dimhollow and he didn't have any ideas on how to repair it.


	2. Stories

Despite the tension in the room, the family and their guests slowly returned to conversation, aided in the fact that Sudi was bouncing around the room pressing them all for stories and tales of their exploits. While her attentions were mostly focussed on Kaius, she did return to the women accompanying him regularly. Kaius may have been a living legend within the province but for the young girl, the women who accompanied him as his equals were of greater interest. Kaius was thankful for the distraction and he settled down in his own chair as the evening progressed, dinner was served and finished and swapped a few stories with the old sailor and his wife. Their son's attentions were almost entirely focused on the fact that there were three extremely attractive women in their home, and Sudi was basking in the aura of those she considered to be her heroes.

They had talked for several hours and while the storm continued venting its fury outside it was noticeably weakening. There was still no doubt that they had to stay the night but by this time all bar Lydia and her refusal to drink alcohol, Serana in her own polite refusal and Sudi as the youngest had made a considerable dent in Sofia's and the Lighthouse's stock. The mood was considerably lighter and everyone was relaxing in each other's presences especially as the stories became lighter.

"And so, he simply stands in the middle of the room in front of everyone and says '_it is important for a warrior to win, but it is more important for a warrior to not spill his drink_'. Everyone's jaws were already on the floor as it was but you should have seen their faces when he poured out his cup."

Sofia giggled loudly as she finished the tale and tried to ignore the flutter of unpleasant memories of what else had happened that evening. Ramati and Habd were smiling, and there was even the hints of amusement on Serana's and Lydia's faces as she told how Kaius had dealt with Mikael all those long months ago. It was a lighter story than some of the others that had been told that evening, especially those that involved dragons.

"I don't remember it being quite that... _involved_." Kaius muttered around his on cup. In all the months that she had been travelling with him, Sofia couldn't remember Kaius ever being entirely drunk and while she had seen him hungover, it had never been the same as hers.

"Only because you were too busy having to knock three thugs out."

He shrugged, conceding the point with a grin. They were all sitting around the hearth and for the most part their equipment and travelling clothes were fully dry once again, allowing them all to sit around the crackling fire in the various chairs that the family owned. Most of the furniture had been made by Habd, some had spent their own years on board the ship with him and his family and only with close inspection could Kaius and his companions see the tiny hints of a life at sea. Nearly all the chairs, especially the two enormous armchairs had flat bottomed legs with holes where they had been nailed down to stop them from moving in heavy seas.

"True…" the clink of an empty bottle was loud enough to be heard over the fire and the dying throes of the storm outside but he looked surprisingly relaxed. For the women travelling with him they knew that it was more from the fact that he was happy at being warm and indoors than the couple of bottles of alcohol that he had consumed. "I think it might be a good time to call it a day."

"I have to apologise for the lack of beds." Habd said honestly. "We've never considered entertaining guests before. Next time if you give us a week or twos notice I would be able to whip something up."

"It's fine." Rising to his feet, Kaius waved off his apology. "We've all slept in far worse."

"So, who is going where?" Serana asked hesitantly, looking about the room.

"Mani's room has space for two of you. He's sleeping on the floor in his sister's room to give you all some measure of privacy. About the only other places that'll give you space to yourselves is the storage room on the second floor otherwise feel free to set up wherever you can find space."

Running his hands across the armchair he was sitting in, Kaius looked between the aged sailor and the fireplace in front of them. "I'll take advantage of your craftsmanship unless you mind. If not, I have no intentions of moving far from this fire tonight."

The chuckle echoed in the room. "I don't blame you. It's been three years and I'm still coming to terms with the cold myself. Make yourself comfortable."

"I'll sleep in the storeroom if no one has any complaints?" Lydia said simply and succinctly, leaving Sofia and Serana looking at each other for a moment.

"Looks like it's you and me then."

Serana met Sofia's eyes and despite the concept of sleeping in the same room as an ancient vampiress invoking unease, the combination of alcohol buzzing through her veins and the fact that she had been travelling with Kaius for so long left Sofia immune to such emotions. If anything, Serana seemed to be more concerned at the fact that Sofia did.

Quietly finishing their drinks and with Habd and Ramati excusing themselves they all went about the task of preparing for sleep. Lydia vanished almost instantly, fading from sight up the winding staircase to the second floor and the storeroom that was going to be her bedroom for the night, and the last Sofia saw of Kaius was the vampiric mercenary snuggling down under his thin traveller blanket. There was little to be seen with his legs up on a cushioned footrest as he made himself comfortable for the night.

"So... Who's getting the bed?"

Looking up from where she was rummaging with her traveling pack, Serana fixed Sofia with a glare that was partially annoyance and partially confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed there's only one bed in here and that means one of us will have to sleep on the floor. Unless you really want to make Mani have issues walking for the coming weeks after he realises two women got really cosy in his room."

If she wasn't certain, Sofia would have sworn that the temperature had dropped several degrees with the stare from Serana and the slightest flicker of her eyes towards the single bed against the wall. "I'm not sure I gather your meaning."

"Well…" after a second's hesitation she shrugged and sighed loudly. "Never mind. Terrible joke."

Turning to her own pack that she had brought into the room with her, she rummaged though it past the small collection of bottles that remained and dragged out the change of clothing jammed into the bottom. Little more than a pair of pants and a short-sleeved tunic, the rumpled piles landed on the bed a second before she began dragging her current shirt off.

"I'll sleep on the floor." Serana said, her eyes adverting to the floor as Sofia turned and gave her a smile while completely bare from the waist up.

"I won't turn down laying between sheets for a night. Especially those that don't belong in a flea infested tavern." Shaking the travel dust and the small pieces of straw that she used for packing her bottles of alcohol in her pack out of her shirt, she caught a glance of herself in the tiny wall mirror and turned to face it.

Months of journeying on the road in Kaius' footsteps had hardened her even further than what she had though possible. Before they had met she had curves in all the right places but she had been gaining a semblance of softness to her body that she had never been happy with. Now, barely any traces of fat remained on her frame and while she would never have the _rippling_ physique that Lydia had, it was nice to see muscle when she sucked her stomach in.

"I want your honest opinion. What do you think of my boobs?" she said suddenly, turning to face Serana who had frozen in mid motion as though she had walked into a frost rune.

"W-what?"

Wearing nothing but her boots and pants and with less than two metres separating her and the ancient vampiress, Sofia couldn't help but notice that Serana's eyes were now locked to the floor directly in front of her. There wasn't even the slightest tremble or attempt to glance anywhere in Sofia's direction.

"I mean do they look the right size to you?"

Serana's mouth popped open, closed and opened again but no words came out as her pale features changed into a reddish hue. Instead she turned away, making herself busy with unrolling her sleeping bag and furs on the floor. "Why would you even ask me something like that?"

"I can't ask Lydia, she's too stubborn and uptight, and after last time I certainly can't ask Kaius. That was way too awkward."

"_Ge mig stryrka_. Is that really something that you need an answer for?"

"Well… I suppose not. I was curious."

Her fresh shirt was pulled over her head and pants quickly replaced while Serana remained firmly facing the other way.

"You're not used to people are you."

The strange stiffening that coursed through Serana gave Sofia the distinct impression that the vampire was somehow sniffing or using her enhanced senses to discern her state of undress before slowly turning.

"I've never really been with anyone for any period of time."

"Yeah. Kaius said something similar shortly after you arrived at fort Dawnguard."

Serana looked over Sofia with a pair of eyes that were as blue-green like a glacier on the Sea of Ghosts. They bored into the back of Sofia's skull like a pair of thrown ice spikes before returning to the floor.

"What else did he say about me?"

"That you were dangerous. One of the most dangerous things that he had ever met." Flicking her own sleeping furs out, she rolled onto the teenager's bed and stretched out. "Which, I would take as a compliment as he has personally punched on with at least two dragons that I have seen, and the Gods only know what else in his life."

"I am dangerous…"

Sofia rolled her head to the side and looked at the way that Serana was sitting cross legged on the floor, her hands clasped together and fingers clenching and unclenching.

"Of course you are. You're one of the most ancient and tough vampires in existence. Kaius thinks you are dangerous but he also seems to trust you."

Again, the blue-green irises rose momentarily before returning to the floor. "I wish I knew why."

The chuckle turned into a snort and Sofia rolled onto her side. "Don't worry. That's something that Lydia and I have been thinking ever since you fell out of that tomb thing of yours in Dimhollow."

"Do you trust me?" Serana seemed equally confused and expectant.

"Not entirely, but I trust Kaius. As much as he is good at getting me into situations where I feel like I'm about to shit myself in terror, he has also pulled me out of just as many, if not more."

Silence fell between the two of them and the only real sound was the way that Serana wriggled down into her sleeping gear.

"Do you know how Kaius became a vampire?"

Sofia looked at the vampiress, shrugged and rolled onto her back. "Nope. Other than how old he is I don't have a clue. He's never spoken about his past other than the odd details or two that seems to slip out. I know he had a family once, which might have been before he was turned but he still has a wife somehow. As for what he has been up to for these past two centuries I don't know for certain. I have noticed that he gets really edgy when you discuss the Oblivion Crisis though."

"I haven't read much about the Crisis. I know it was bad."

"Yeah, and the Throat of the World is a small hill." Despite the alcohol buzzing in her veins, it took her a few moments to build up the courage to ask the question on the tip of her mind. "Were you always a vampire?"

Sofia could almost hear the thoughts churning within Serana's mind as she thought. "That's… a long story."

"I bet, but I want to hear it." The statement surprised Sofia more than Serana as she found herself speaking honestly.

"I guess… well, we have to go way back. To the very beginning at least. Do you know where vampirism comes from?"

"Kaius told me shortly after I found out what he really is. It's a curse from Molag Bal."

"A curse to some, a blessing to others."

"Strength of ten men, immortality and all that?"

"Exactly. The first vampire came from Molag Bal. She… She was not a willing subject but she was still the first. She may not have sought to become a vampire but to many she represented something else. An end to the means."

"I don't think I could ever understand the minds of daedra worshippers, but it's not the craziest thing I have heard people do for power."

There was a rustle of furs as Serana shrugged. "For those willing to subjugate themselves _He_ will bestow the gift of vampirism, but they must be powerful in their own right before earning such a 'gift'.

"So, how _did_ you actually become a vampire?"

This time the silence had an edged quality to it and all that Sofia could hear was the soft breathing from the ancient vampiress on the floor next to the bed. Only after she turned and leaned over to look at Serana could she see the tenseness running through her body, and the way that vampire writhed under the surface.

"The ceremony was… degrading. I don't wish to revisit that, but we all took part in it. Not what you would call a '_wholesome_' family activity but I guess it's something you do when you give yourselves to a daedric lord."

Sofia could see the way that Serana was tensing and refusing to look in any direction other than the stone ceiling above them. The blue-green eyes had changed slightly, a flame of terrible potency being born within them before Serana crushed it inside once again with considerable will.

"I don't know much about Molag Bal, but anyone known as the daedric prince of _rape_ certainly isn't going to be a '_swell guy_'."

"It's hard for outsiders to know how it is to worship the deyra. Most are lucky enough to never encounter one of their kind."

"Most don't find themselves travelling with Kaius." For a split second, Sofia's laugh was overwhelmingly loud before she realised and clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles. The alcohol she had drunk had left her floating happily on a cloud both physically and mentally.

"That sounds like a story."

She nodded, pressing her head into the pillow and squeezing her eyes shut as the hilarity of her situation sunk home. Here she was, effectively having a sleepover with a pure blood vampire while discussing daedric princes and damnation and something about it left her unable to stop giggling. "It's a story for another time, but Kaius and I ended up having drinks with Sanguine."

"_Sangvinisk_?" The thick guttural pronunciation in ancient Nordic left Sofia giggling even more and despite herself Serana was breaking out into a grin as well. "That definitely sounds like an interesting story."

"Let's just say that time with Kaius is certainly not boring."

They both giggled in agreement and both found themselves strangely relaxed for the first time in months, if not longer.

"I owe you all my thanks." Serana said softly, almost too softly for Sofia to hear.

"Thanks for what?"

"Letting me join you on this journey. Treating me as some_one_, rather than some_thing_."

"In case you hadn't noticed, we don't discriminate. Kaius especially."

"But you don't trust me though."

"Trust isn't something that magically _happens_. It's something that needs to be earned. Everyone is capable of making anyone else trust them." Scrunching her face in concentration, Sofia snorted again. "Except for Isran. That bastard will never trust anyone but himself."

Whether it was the mead that she had spent the night drinking or the dark expression on Serana's face underneath the joviality Sofia wasn't sure but she rolled over completely, resting her head on her arms and looking down at the vampiress.

"I've been with Kaius for almost two years now, and I don't have any illusions that he doesn't entirely trust me._I_ wouldn't trust me. We've fought dragons, dragur, vampires and countless other creatures together but at the end of the day he's still a vampire, and I'm… well. _Me…_ Some small foresworn girl all grown up travelling from bottle to bottle."

"Foresworn?"

Sofia's face paled and she mentally begun slapping herself while hoping against hope that Serana didn't know enough of the world to make the connections.

"You are one of the Reachmen?"

_Damnit…_ Echoed through her skull.

"Uh… Yeah. Sorta… Ma and Pa were, but that life is long behind me. I left almost as soon as my legs were large enough to carry me cause I didn't want to be some magical weapon against the Nords before I hit puberty… _Fuck!_"

Serana was taken aback by her exclamation and shrunk back from the sudden irritation on Sofia's face.

"Sorry, that wasn't directed at you. Just cursing myself for how that just slipped out there."

"A past you wish to keep buried?"

"Heh, but in case you hadn't noticed, we all have pasts that we don't want the others knowing. You and how you became a vampire, Kaius and whatever the Oblivion he has been up to these past two hundred years and Lydia… Actually I don't think that Lydia is hiding much but she _really_ needs to get laid. Regularly come to think of it..."

The dark expression on Serana's face cracked again with the hint of a smile but there was still shadows in her eyes at the topic. Taking her own amount of willpower, Sofia dragged her mind away from certain topics and tried to return to the one at hand. "Ma and pa were priests of the Foresworn. I don't know how familiar you are with the Reachmen and their recent history..."

With Sofia's questing expression, Serana nodded slightly. "I have read a little. _The Bear of Markarth_ among others."

"You know enough then for this to make sense. After Markarth fell to the Nords again, those living on the fringes of the Reach returned to the old gods in a really big way. You name it, daedra worship, human sacrifice, the lot. Their tribe enacted a ritual to allow them to conceive a child with a 'deep' connection to magicka to allow them to wage war against the Reach more effectively."

"This child… was you?"

Sofia nodded. "Yep. Born right at the height of the summer solstice, under the sign of the Apprentice and cursed with a natural affinity to all kinds of magicka. Apparently cast my first magelight before I was three years old. I dunno if you could truly understand how it is to have been chosen from birth to be something completely out of your control. Destined for great things and all that."

The look of Serana's face said more than words could and cut through the fuzzy haze of mead on Sofia's mind.

"Maybe you can… Anyway, this 'gift' as they kept calling it came with a few downsides. Headaches, the worst, fucked up nightmares you can imagine and the ability to detect magicka no matter how small or simple in the vicinity."

"So you ran away from your _brod_?"

"My family? You bet. Especially once I got wind of the fact that I was going to be some sort of sacrifice for one of the village's briarhearts or the like. Wasn't even ten years old before I legged it out of there and didn't stop until I was out of the Reach itself. Wandered for a bit, tried my luck with the College of Winterhold and left there too. In fact, the most time I have stayed in one place since has been Fort Dawnguard and Ivarstead with Kaius."

"He is… calming to be around."

Sofia couldn't help but see the way that Serana had curled up slightly under her blankets. "Putting that mildly aren't you? I don't think I could feel any safer in the middle of a castle surrounded by the entire Legion. On top of that, he's also taught me more about magic in these past months than what I had learned in the rest of my life. I don't need to drink myself unconscious to sleep without dreams or to dull the headaches as much anymore. Now I drink because I _want_ to."

If the grin got any bigger on Sofia's face it would have threatened to split flesh. "Plus, it helps wandering about with so much candy for the eyes."

There was no mistaking the way that Serana's face reddened and she looked even more uncomfortable than before. "I wouldn't know."

"Oh. Right. Guess you wouldn't have had much experience with guys who don't have a set of fangs and a fetish for neck biting. Wait… _Shit_. That's Kaius anyway. Never mind me, I make sense in my own mind at least."

"I think I know what you mean."

"I hope you do, cause I'm likely to really put my foot in it if I continued."

There was a further shuffling as Serana rolled over and turned her back to Sofia. "It's okay. I'm going to turn in for the night."

"I suppose it's time for both of us to get some sleep. Another long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Rolling onto her back, Sofia found herself staring up at the ceiling feeling the strangeness of the bed she was laying on. There was just enough light seeping under the door from the living room and the hearth and she wondered just how much of her conversation had been heard by Kaius in the armchair only a dozen metres or so away. She knew that his hearing was a match for anything or anyone and like it had previously, the thought of him made her feel extremely self-conscious.

Serana's soft breathing seemed to steady and enter something resembling a relaxed rhythm within minutes but for a timeless age Sofia found herself staring at the ceiling. Try as she might she couldn't seem to twist her rolling thoughts away from her past and the dark days that had followed after fleeing the village. Her issues with the College and the building unease at returning there and to those who lived there and the memory of returning to her birthplace and finding it little more than a burned ruin. Especially those memories of the months she had lived under the shadow, and in some cases _heel_ of Amauoc before she managed to give him and their toxic relationship the slip refused to go away.

Concentrating on the breathing exercises that Kiaus had taught her since dealing with the vampires in Morthal, she stared at the inky blackness of the ceiling, hoping that Vaermina would take the night off and leave her dreams free of nightmares.

_A dream of sharing a bed with Kaius would be nice…_ she thought with a smile as she felt her body begin to relax and her conscious mind slipped away.

* * *

Ge mig stryrka - Give me strength (Swedish/Ancient Nordic)


	3. Nightmares

The obsidian stairs slapped the underside of his boots as he took them four at a time. The vampire was fully surfaced now, consuming his body with the flesh change and filling him with the untold power of the damned. Every muscle was pulsating in time with his corrupted heart, veins pumping black ichor through his body that looked like worms burrowing deeply under his skin.

Adrenaline too was pumping from a heart consumed by the daedric corruption that had infused his body and soul. His fangs were bared, talons unsheathed and for one of only a few times the full might of the vampire was unleashed. Like those other times where survival or his love of Viconia had united the darkness and the humanity in his being, both the vampire and the man that shared his body were united in the goal of utterly destroying the foe before them.

A bolt of darkness and bubbling corruption smashed into the stairs where he was standing a split second before and as he slapped the stairs with a hand and bounded forward. Even as the ruined portion of the stairs receded behind him, he could hear the foul magicka sizzling and eating into the stonework. Another bolt smashed down from the top of the towering staircase like a vengeful lightning bolt but it too missed him as his vampiric agility allowed him to duck and weave around it.

Months of planning, two years of journeying throughout Cyrodiil and eventually into the very depths of the world had led him to this place. Countless murders had been enacted, the boons of several Daedric Princes gained and one by one he and Viconia had slain all of their target's allies until only She remained.

On top of the towering ziggurat, rising high above Menzoberranzan stood their ultimate quarry and their foe of the past years. Lloth; daedramancer, High Priestess of the ancient Ayleid city of Mackamentain, and one of the last of that long dead race shrieked her outrage at being attacked in the very seat of her power. Four thousand years of siphoning soul energies and absorbing the worship of a race descended from the ancient witch-priests and sorcerer-kings of the Ayleids had allowed her to grow in power to rival almost any being within Nirn and even Oblivion itself, but she was not invincible.

Viconia and Kaius had journeyed long and far in their persuit of the ancient being's death and both had the fresh scars to show for it. Especially Kaius' battle with Hahdrimrii had left him bereft of his unique Daedroth scale mail and Ebony-Mithril breastplate and with a burn scar from armpit to groin. But now he was stronger and faster than ever before. The battle on top of the ziggurat that was Lloth's temple had been raging incessantly for half an hour now in full view of the entire population of Menzoberranzan and there would be no one; slaves or Drow alike who would not be watching the unfolding spectacle.

A pillar snapped and exploded into shards as a spindly, segmented leg smashed through it as though it was insubstantial as mist. Another cratered the top of the ziggurat and Kaius slashed at it with the Light of Dawn, drawing another gout of blood from the ascended being. They had been well prepared for this confrontation, but neither Kaius or Viconia had truly believed that they both would be walking away from this foe. Lloth was far from the mortal she had once been so many _thousands_ of years before. She was for all intents an immortal goddess but that tiny portion that wasn't was susceptible to pain and injury.

The Daedric Artefacts they had brought with them had performed their tasks as intended, but some had proven insufficient to contend with Lloth's power. Mehrune's Razor, the tiny blood-soaked dagger of the Prince of Destruction had been shattered into pieces under a fist as large as Kaius' chest. Slowly dissolving into the broken obsidian bricks and stoneworks, the snapped pieces of the Ebony Blade too were returning to Mephala's infernal realm after tasting the blood of a demigod. The vaunted, and supposedly indestructible nature of Peryite's Spellbreaker shield had been cloven almost entirely in two from a monstrously powerful blast of magical shadows. Even the twisting and writhing staff of the Prince of Debauchery had been snapped over a furred and segmented knee like a piece of kindling, and the several dozen daedra it had summoned were left as strewn remains all over the temple.

Only the Ring of Khajiiti; the gift from Meridia remained firmly wrapped around one of Viconia's fingers, leaving her as a blur of movement and half-visible shapes as she flitted about their towering foe. Standing several stories tall, Lloth was the vision of a nightmare in the half drow, half spider form that she had chosen for herself. Each leg was longer than a mountain pine and just as thick, hands large enough to grip and crush the life out of mortals but there was no mistaking the being that she once was in the oversized feminine torso jutting from the giant arachnid thorax. When the fight had first commenced she was clothed in the flesh of her original form, but Kaius' appearance had forced her to undergo the changes away from the alluring and impossibly gorgeous elfin woman she once was.

Shrieking in rage and indignation of being so brazenly assaulted, she was impossibly strong and left the bowels of the earth heaving in response. Cracks were forming through the ceiling high above their heads as though her anger threatened to break the earth asunder. Despite all of her advantages and despite her overwhelming might she was losing inch by bloody inch.

In all of the centuries that she had existed, she had never been truly faced directly by her enemies or even attacked. She had enjoyed the absolute rule that only fear and an iron fist of authority could provide, and the Drow society that she had spent three entire era's corrupting and influencing had left her utterly disadvantaged when someone had truly sought to defeat her. The other priests and mages that had journeyed with her into the bowels of Nirn during the dying days of the Ayleid Empire had never sought to truly kill her even when they too turned to blood sacrifice and worship. Their number may have dwindled over the millennia but even they would have never even considered the actions that Kaius and Viconia were undertaking.

Another roll allowed a furred leg in the putrescent form of a spider to narrowly miss him and again more blood was drawn. On the other side of the ziggurat, Dragonbane and Sunchild flashed, their ancient forging somehow managing to allow Viconia to fight with them where daedric artefacts had failed. In the time since the battle had begun most of Lloth's temple had been destroyed, as had the artefacts but it was obvious that the foul being was weakening.

Where Mehrune's Razor could have killed a mortal with a scratch, the deep jagged wound down Lloth's back refused to heal. Where the Ebony Blade could cut souls in two, an enormous arm was limp and lifeless. The other artefacts had simply bought them time and the ability to wear their monstrous adversary down and both Viconia and Kaius could sense the end approaching.

The battle was not entirely going their way. With the merest flick of a wrist Kaius had been thrown down all six hundred stairs with a set of broken ribs and he had been lucky at that. Viconia was fighting with an obvious limp that only the daedric ring on her finger was allowing her to remain one step ahead of Lloth's grasping fingers and clawed feet. There was no guarantee that they were going to be victorious, but they had also decided before they had begun that whether they both lived or died, Lloth wouldn't survive this fight.

Clawed and terrible and weeping venomed darkness, the hand slapped ineffectively at Kaius as he stabbed the Light of Dawn into a chitinous portion of her torso and hurled himself upwards. Lloth was slowing more and more with every second as her foul blood wept from the numerous wounds they had inflicted, splattering onto the temple floor where it sizzled as though the stones were super-heated. There was power in her veins, a power unlike anything in the world or those beyond and it was this power that they had to remove.

Kaius had the sensation of riding an unbroken horse as he scrabbled his way up Lloth's spine, digging his own talons into her flesh that reeked of beauty and femininity despite the evil that infused her. In her mortal form she was impossibly beautiful but no one embodied the saying of beauty only being skin deep than the Spider-Empress of the Drow. There was the flash of white teeth in a face contorted in rage and hatred as Viconia too dragged herself up the enormous torso. Fingers dropped lifelessly to the ground as the last swipe of the Light of Dawn hacked them away and in that instant the Spider-Goddess was defenceless.

Jamming the blade to the hilt in a shoulder, Kaius felt blood leak from his ears from Lloth's scream of agony even as he climbed higher and found himself mirrored in her enormous yellow eyes. For the first time in thousands of years there was fear in there, a fear that had been brought about by the way she had been brought low by beings lesser than herself. Death was the great equaliser whether they were mortal, vampire or demigod, and Kaius and Viconia was hers.

A pair of jaws, both filled with rows of needle like teeth unhinged wide and together they bit down hard into ebony flesh, drawing out another scream from the towering being that sounded like a tree branch being dragged down a cobblestone road.

His eyes reflecting the burning fire within the lighthouse hearth, Kaius looked about the room as the last vestiges of the dream-memory faded away. The battle against Lloth all those long years ago was one memory that refused to fade over the decades since it occurred, as had the way that she had screamed when he and Viconia had bitten into that tree sized throat. It had been permanently burned into his mind, but the noise that she had made in his dream was not that which she had made when she died.

The scraping, scratching, and clawing noise was impossible for man, mer or even animal to make and it had wrenched him from his dream. For several long seconds he sat in the almost suffocating softness of Habd's armchair, staring into the slowly dying embers of the fire and feeling the comforting weight of his blanket. Very little was capable of catching him unawares with his vampiric nature and while sleep took some time to release its hold on his consciousness he was also wired and ready for a fight.

The scratching plucked at his senses and he found his gaze being drawn towards the front door and the one adjacent it. Sometime during the hours that he had been asleep the storm had died away entirely, and only the faint moaning of the wind as it swirled the fresh snow outside could be heard. To anyone else within the Lighthouse with the exception of Serana the strange scratching would be impossible to discern but to him it was clear and audible.

Shortly after they had arrived at the lighthouse, Ramati had given them a brief verbal tour of their home and he remembered her saying that the door adjacent the entrance led to the tiny stables built into the ground floor. He had smelled the horse within seconds of their arrival but the strange noise was definitely coming from behind the closed door.

Something was plucking at the edge of his senses and within the depths of his mind he could feel the familiar presence of the vampire rising. Its instincts along with his own were finely tuned and honed to a razor's edge and at that very moment they were warning him that not all was right.

Slipping his boots on quickly and silently, he moved with all the noise and surety of a shadow, plucking his broadsword and harness from where it rested against his chair as he rose to his feet. The scratching was still present and carefully he moved to the door leading to the stable, listening intently.

It would have been easy for him to ignore the sounds but he had not lived nearly two hundred and forty years by taking chances. After a brief moment to focus his mind and breathing, his broadsword whispered its way from its sheath as he quietly opened the door and vanished into the inky blackness within.

* * *

Surprisingly, Sofia's dream of finding herself in bed with Kaius came into fruition and she was thoroughly enjoying herself. She knew that it was a dream, as reality had so far failed her in finding herself in such a situation where she would be straddling the scarred vampire, grinding and writhing and feeling the teak-like muscles twisting and bunching and his hands caressing _everything_.

It made the inevitable plunge into the depths of nightmares that much more… _annoying_. Vaermina's influence was one that she was all too intimate with and it was almost a homecoming to see the grotesque beings looking down upon her as she lay helpless and naked. These ones appeared to be different to the usual daedra-spawn and monsters coughed forth from the depths of her imagination. If anything, they appeared mundane and even boring compared to the other creatures inhabiting her nightmares. Hunchbacked like a hagraven, starved to the point of emasculation they had thin, pinched faces framing tiny maws filled with rotting teeth the shape and size of file points.

She did give Vaermina bonus points for this nightmare though. The lack of eyes was a nice touch, as was the slightly bulbous heads and the twitching, pointed ears that reminded her of bats. The three of them hovered over her, chittering and clicking quietly and they moved as though they were suffering some palsy that left them with permanent tics and hunched spines.

The sensations were also a nice touch. Unlike her oh-so-enjoyable dream of being astride Kaius with his hands and flesh solid, yet as consistent as clouds, she could almost swear that this trio of hunchbacked creatures were actually grasping and tugging on her clothes and the blanket covering her. Their claws plucked at flesh and wrapped with surprising strength around her limbs and there was also the strange burning sensation threading its way through her veins.

One of the eyeless creatures twisted its head and slowly the thoughts began to tumble into some semblance of order in her mind. The dream room was all too familiar and accurate to her normal dreams, as was the way that she realised that she could actually _smell_ them. Like the musty remains of foliage in the depths of Falkreath's forests or the bogs of Morthal, it caught in the back of her throat. As the seconds dragged on and the burning numbness spread to every extremity, she realised that she was not dreaming at all.

The clawed hand pulled away from her stomach where the burning originated and as her eyes caught glimpse of the strange fang dripping with venom clutched in the almost skeletal digits. Somehow, she knew that the fang had once belonged to a frostbite spider which explained the strange paralysis that consumed her.

"You better hope I go back to my dream of humping Kaius." She mumbled incoherently as the toxin flooding her bloodstream returned her to unconsciousness. As silent as ever, the trio of emasculated creatures gripped her tightly as they quickly dragged her comatose body from the bed.

* * *

Taking one last glance to ensure that everything was in its rightful place, Habd nodded once to himself and closed the hatch. With the storm breathing its last there was not as much need for the lighthouse fire, but more importantly he no longer needed to remain awake to ensure that nothing happened to the flame. There was enough oil to burn for several more hours and the solid glass windows surrounding the signal fire had weathered yet another Skyrim storm as they had for the years since he and his family moved in. The mirror arrangement made from a collection of carefully forged and polished steel was doing exactly what it was designed for with the help of some locally sourced magicka. Even during the worst coastal storms, the enchantments on the curved sheet of metal partially bent around the bowl on the landward side allowed the light to penetrate through snow, sleet and driving rain.

It was well after midnight now, a fact that didn't allude him as he made his way down the short ladder and felt the stones under his boots once more. Entertaining Kaius and his companions had been a surprisingly welcome distraction from a life that he only now truly realised was quiet compared to his earlier years. It had also made the inevitable arguments and complaints from his children in the not-too-distant future all that more obvious. Mani was getting too old to remain at home and even young Sudi, while not as young as what she had been on board the Deliverance was still old enough to wish for more than a quiet life stoking a fire. While he had enjoyed the company of the travellers he knew that they had brought a glimpse of the outside world to his family, and one that was not entirely welcome. In the days of vampire attacks, dragons being seen atop of almost every mountain in the province and the steadily building conflict of a civil war, neither he or his wife would rest easy if one or both of their children left to make their own marks in the world.

With his lantern held in one hand, and taking the long spiralling staircase down to the Lighthouse's living quarters he was so lost in thought that he didn't hear any of the noises. Some… _thing_ in the shadows outside of the main bedroom he and Ramati shared shifted at his approach, and he stopped in mid step.

With the lanterns extinguished for the evening, the entire lighthouse interior was plunged into a darkness that utterly outmatched even the darkest of nights. The necessity of reinforced construction ensured that the only windows were those protecting the fire from the elements, and those were almost four centimetres thick. Downstairs would have been lit by the hearth, but in the narrow corridor connecting the upper staircase to the bedroom, storage room and the shorter stairs leading to the ground floor there was nothing but his lantern.

Initially he thought that it had been the bottle or two of mead that his guests had shared with him, or that the late hour and the song his bed was singing to him was affecting his mind. Some deep seated instinct was lifting the hairs on the back of his neck as he stared into the shadows, looking not directly at the source of the movement but shifting his eyes about in an old sailors trick as one's peripheral vision was better at discerning detail. For several long seconds that passed as his heart began hammering into his chest, he realised that he wasn't entirely alone.

At first he thought it was Kaius or one of his other companions dwelling in the shadows near his bedroom door, but the height and shape was all wrong. Somewhere in his conscious mind a tiny voice was telling him that it was simply a figment of an overactive imagination and he wished desperately that he could believe it.

Slowly it shifted, moving closer and he found himself looking down on a pale, misshapen being that slowly crawled on all fours towards him. It creeped carefully in his direction, pressing what were obviously a pair of humanoid, if wretched hands into the floor as it moved. As hunched as it was, he somehow knew that if its twisted spine was capable of straightening it would have almost been his height, but as it was it reminded him of one of the hunchbacked performers in the travelling fair he had seen all those years before. The spine itself was ridged and pressed into the thin, greasy skin that would not have looked out of place on a drowned corpse but it was the face that left him trembling with horror.

The head was bulbous like an upside-down gourd or rotten fruit with a tiny slit-like mouth hung open and revealing tiny, peg like teeth that were both rotting and sharpened like chisels. Where most beings had a nose, this foul creature instead had a pair of upside-down, teardrop shaped holes as though its original nose had been hacked away with a knife. Not only did it appear completely hairless but it was completely lacking any form of eyes. Even worse, it appeared that whatever atrophied eyes it once had, if it indeed ever had any, had been overgrown with flesh. It almost appeared that whatever foul, demented god or being had designed this grey skinned horror in front of him had formed it out of rotting wax before melting its features with a naked flame.

The tremble in his arm did not go away and he found himself affixed to the spot, staring with an opened mouth at the way that it prowled forward. Twisting its head this was and that, it advanced towards him in a combination of slow, careful movements as though sensing the walls around it and jerky, erratic motions as though it was a lifelong sufferer of an epilepsy or series of tics. Every detail about this being, from its movements to the texture of its flesh, all the way to the way it smelled left Habd frozen to the spot with growing terror and nausea. The closer it got the more he began to gag, finding himself all too reminded of the foul, brackish water that infected the bilges of every ship. It was the smell of rot and decay, of a horrid and terrible corruption of the flesh and everything that it had ever been near and as it was properly illuminated by his lanterns feeble light he was struggling not to be sick.

To his horror, there was more than this single creature in his family's home. The door to the storage room where Lydia was sleeping was playing host to the writhing forms of three or more as they carefully approached the sleeping housecarl, and to his disbelieving eyes he saw two duck through into his bedroom. Some deep seated fear had awoken in him, and he found himself once again to the mercy of rolling waves and with nothing more than a broken plank to keep his head above water, seeing in the twisted monster's visage the dead eyed, predatory expression of the sharks that had claimed several of his friends during the war.

Whether woken by her sharpened senses or by the creatures' presence, Lydia's mumbled, wordless query was met with a collection of clicks and chittering from those surrounding her in the cramped confines of the storeroom. It was this sudden noise that broke the spell of terror that had held Habd tight and he recoiled from the one closest to him with his own cry of revulsion.

Chaos erupted on the floor and the prowling beings suddenly burst into frenzied movement. Their careful, twitchy movements were gone in a flash and so too had the sounds of their claws dragging across the floors. In their place was a collection of hisses and pneumonic growls as they abandoned their stealth and went on the attack.

The one closest to him launched itself at him in a scrabbling mass of leprous claws and rotten teeth. Even without eyes there was no mistaking the way that the expression had transformed into one of utter hatred and ravenous hunger, the nose slits flaring in bloodlust even as his lantern crashed into it. Despite the years since he had fought on board a ship there were some things that a man never lost. His reflexes that had been honed during the Great War and had allowed him to fight and keep his footing on board a ship rolling in heavy swells and it was these reflexes that kept him alive.

The housecarl was bellowing at the top of her lungs and the shadows were writhing with movement as she struggled against those that had attacked her and Habd found himself the centre of attention of at least two of the twisted humanoids. One held a strange looking sword that looked for all purposes a talon tipped leg plucked from the body of some giant insect and they were illuminated in burning embers and splattered oil as he broke the lantern across the face of the one closest to him. He had seconds as most before the oil burned away from where it had sprayed, but the first of the beings shrieking in agony as the lit droplets ate into its pallid flesh.

Using his wife's name as a battle cry and an attempt to discern her fate, he tried his best to dodge his way through the pair facing him into their bedroom as well as fight them off. They didn't seem to fight like anything he had encountered before, almost acting like a diseased and blood crazed skeever and yet holding back as though they feared his larger size and reach.

A burning ball of light suddenly appeared, illuminating the hallway and dual sets of stairs in a stack contrast of blackened shadows and white light. Completely blind, the creatures didn't need to shy their gazes from the thrown magelight but their hearing was superb and allowed them to twist in the direction of thunderous footsteps coming up from the ground floor. Even their twitchy natures and quick movements didn't help them as the bloodied figure appearing like an avenging spirit, killing one outright even before they had truly realised they were under attack.

Before Habd could himself realise what had occurred the two creatures attacking him were dead, as were the pair who had entered his bedroom and one of those attacking Lydia. Grim faced and snarling in an expression that was made ever more horrible with the lack of anger or rage in it, Kaius simply killed them with as much difficulty as he had skinned and gutted the rabbits for dinner. He kicked one into the wall, spearing it through the chest, hacking the next one's head clean off before grabbing the third by the throat and stabbing it in the temple. Entirely covered in blood, the length of his broadsword jutted from the opposite side of the skull from the sheer force of the strike before being ripped free from the corpse. The fourth was stomped into the ground after having its legs cut away and the fifth dropped like a sack of potatoes as he flung the dagger he had prepared the rabbits with into the back of its head with a fleshy crack.

The remaining two didn't fare any better. Roaring with the effort Lydia flung both of the hunchbacked beings off her, crushing one's throat and leaving it scrabbling and writhing as it choked to death and catching the other by the ankle as it turned to scamper away. Hidden in the flickering shadows of the magelight stuck to his bedroom's doorframe, the last Habd saw of that creature was it slapping onto its belly as Lydia heaved back on a leg. There was a second where it broke its claws trying to scrabble at the stone floor as she dragged it back into the storeroom before proceeding to beat the life out it with nothing but her fists.

Standing in the middle of the hallway that now had more of an appearance of a butcher's shop, Kaius stood still for a moment as he took several deep and controlled breaths before sheathing his broadsword. His clothing was ripped in several places, and there was a pair of shallow cuts up one arm but other than the blood that he was drenched in there was no sign that he had just effortlessly killed half a dozen of the creatures in half as many seconds.

"Are you alright?"

Too stunned at everything that had happened in such a short space of time, Habd struggling to keep the tremors out of his arms and instead nodded as Kaius looked him over for injuries. He was obviously the least injured out of them, as Lydia dragged herself up from the creature that she had beaten to death with her hands already swelling and knuckles bleeding.

"Kaius?" She said, still groggy from being woken in such a way but feeling the effects of the adrenaline in her veins. "What are these things?"

In the space of a single heartbeat, Kaius somehow went from looking grim, to angry, to downright despondent. "_Calussai d'lil Elghinyrr..._" the unfamiliar words rolled off his tongue and seemed to thud into the floor with the weight they carried."

"What?"

The look that he gave her was one of terrible sorrow. "They are the reason I am in Skyrim."

Ramati's weak call from their bedroom broke Habd out of his trance of shock and terror and he practically tripped over himself in his haste running to her side. Kaius and Lydia followed quickly in his footsteps, finding him by her side where her dark skin had gone a waxy grey from the pain and shock.

"Habd…" She whispered as he gripped her hand so tightly that he suddenly found himself concerned that he was going to break fingers. Kaius moved into the room with all the presence of the storm that had just passed them and without a word he quickly began looking over the wound on Ramati's chest.

"_Caluss_ venom." His voice was as cold as a grave. "Enough to poison, not enough to kill thank Talos."

"You've seen these things before." Habd growled, feeling his wife's head press into his shoulder as he tried his best to comfort her. Another thought entered his mind and he almost leapt to his feet again if it wasn't for Kaius' firm hand coming to rest on an arm.

"Your children have been taken." They all felt a chill at his words as he matter-of-factly stated the worst while quickly dressing the injury on Ramati's side. "As have our companions and yes, I have encountered these things before."

"They are daedra." Moaned Ramati as her eyes rolled into the back of her skull in a combination of pain and the toxins making their way through her veins.

"No. They are _Falmer_…"

Lydia and Habd shared a glance and he realised that the dour housecarl knew just as much as what he did, which was very little at all.

"Snow elves?" The axe in Lydia's hands looked large in the flickering light as Kaius cast another magelight. "There is no way that those… _things_ are elves!"

With deft movements he quickly dressed tied off the dressing made from a strip of torn bed sheet and there was the faint glow of magicka as he pressed his hands into her side. "Unfortunately they are. Or used to be. Now they are animals."

"And they have our children!" Habd's voice was raised and he didn't care, staring daggers at Kaius and trying to shrug off both the mercenary's stare and the hand that returned to his shoulder to keep him in place.

"They have, but they are alive. These things will be taking them back to their nest so we have time to prepare."

"Just how did they get in?" The words seemed to pour forth from his throat despite the way the raw emotion constricted his throat. "Never mind that, how did they manage to get past you in the first place!"

Kaius brushed off the building anger from Habd and the fear that was fuelling the emotion. "They lured me into the stables and ambushed me. It didn't work."

The poisons had robbed his wife of consciousness and Habd sat on the edge of the bed, completely at a loss as his entire world fell apart around him. It was too much to take in, too much to understand and Kaius was experienced enough to know how poorly he was handling it.

"They got into your home through the basement. There's a tunnel down there and it looks like they used the storm to cover up the noise of them breaking through the wall. They also burrowed into the stable and I'm sorry to say that they killed your horse."

"Oh gods. The scratching… Sudi has been complaining about the scratching coming from the basement for weeks now! We… We all thought that it was skeevers, or rats or something."

"Your children will still be alive. As are our companions. We have time before the Falmer do anything to them, but they won't stand a chance if we rush down there." The sheer level of determination within Kaius' eyes made it difficult to meet his gaze as it moved between Habd, Lydia and the now unconscious Ramati. "We'll get them back."

Gritting his teeth so hard that they threatened to crack, Habd fixed Kaius with a glare of his own. "Not without me you fucking won't. Don't think that I'm not coming with you."

Something in his manner seemed to satisfy Kaius, and the ghost of a smile appeared. "You got a weapon? Armour?"

"I've never been one to turn myself into an armoured bucket like you legionaries, but I should still be able to fit into my old leathers. Never gave up my sword though."

"Good." Nodding to him, Kaius rose to his feet and spared a glance to Ramati's sleeping body. "Your wife will be asleep while her body overcomes the poison and with luck we'll return before she wakes. Get ready as quickly as you can and we'll meet you downstairs."

Habd practically exploded into activity, dragging a weighty sea chest out from a wardrobe and flicking the latches keeping it closed. Following his own advice, Kaius quickly shuffled his way down stairs towards the entry and where their armour awaited.

Their shirts of chainmail were a comforting weight as Kaius and Lydia shrugged them on, but as he twisted and began locking his blackened steel breastplate to his chest he caught the housecarl's darkened glare.

"What?"

While impassive, Lydia's eyes radiated fury as she too began strapping her own armour over her chest. "What else are you hiding from us?"

"I'm not hiding anything."

A plated gauntlet clattered to the floor as she strode over to him and growled with less than a daggers span between them. "Don't… don't give me that! You have been hiding everything from us! How much longer must you dishonour us? How much longer must you strip away all my honour!"

His own armour was forgotten for the moment and despite having faced down dragons without fear or hesitation, he slowly edged back from her building rage. "I am _old_, Lydia. Very old for anyone who isn't an Altmer. If I was to tell you of everything that I have seen and killed, you'd be an old woman by the time I finish."

"That is not what I meant and you know it."

Plucking his own gloves from where they lay he quickly wriggled them over his fingers. "I am sorry. Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm sorry I haven't told you why I'm here and why I'm doing all these things or much about me at all. We all have secrets."

"What am I Kaius?"

Their eyes met as Lydia crossed her arms and refused to budge an inch. "A housecarl." He said simply.

"Which means what exactly?"

"You protect me."

"It means that my honour, and the honour of my entire family rests on my ability to either defend you, or die in your place."

"But I'm a vampire."

Lydia's sigh was almost more of a growl of frustration. "It doesn't matter what you are. You could be a child raping assassin of the Dark Brotherhood but it would not make a difference to the fact that I am oath-sworn to your service. The fact that you weren't honest with me with who and what you are means that you don't trust me and while you don't trust me, you don't honour me. You are spitting on me, my honour, and the honour of the entire Storm-Sword family."

"I never told Sofia what I was. She found out for herself."

"Sofia is a little girl too immature to think past getting drunk and finding a stiff cock for between her legs. I suspected _something_ almost from the moment we left Whiterun. Come on Kaius, in Mortal I watched you go blade to blade with a vampiric lord and slew him without any effort at all. You're good, but no one is _that_ good!"

"You could have…"

"Asked?" She cut him off in mid breath. "If I have to ask and make you tell me, then it is not showing that you trust and honour my duty to you."

Sighing loudly, he made a point of looking into the flinty steel gaze of the Nordic woman standing close. "Okay. I'll make you a promise then."

"What promise?"

His vambraces were pulled on tight and he bounced on the balls of his feet to ensure that everything was fitting correctly. "When we get to Winterhold, we'll find somewhere private and I'll tell you all everything you want to know."

"I'm going to hold you to that Kaius." A pair of leather straps were pulled and her breastplate hugged her torso as it connected to the back piece.

Habd appeared at the base of the stairs, the old leather armour he had dragged from the sea chest looking somewhat faded in the dying light of the hearth. "You two ready?"

Sparing a glance to Lydia whose face was now mostly hidden behind her spectacle helm, Kaius nodded to the retired sailor. "We are. I just hope we aren't cutting things too fine."

* * *

Calussai d'lil Elghinyrr - Eaters of the Dead (Drow)

Caluss - Eater (Drow)


	4. The Abyss

Waking up in a pool of her own vomit was something that Sofia was accustomed too, but doing so without excessively drinking the night before was new. The acrid taste on her tongue and the biting smell made her wake quicker than she expected but it still didn't help that she struggled to move at all.

Rocks poked into her flesh where she lay and with a considerable amount of effort she managed to roll herself onto her back and lift her face from where she had voided the contents of her stomach while she had been unconscious. Her entire body felt nerveless and as though her limbs were made of lead and only the stabbing pain in her side seemed to cut through the fuzzy feeling that ate into her.

The nausea however was completely unaffected, and the simple act of rolling onto her back was enough to leave her stomach rebelling once more and it was all she could do to turn her head and vomit again. this was certainly not the effects of the consumption of alcohol and she groaned from the ache in her belly. she had been poisoned, and she slowly remembered the strange dreams and the memories of being dragged from her bed by the freakish beings.

"Who's that?"

Unable to move much at all, Sofia nodded, before realising that other than the feeble light being generated by the strange glowing fungus infesting the walls and ceiling that the speaker wouldn't be able to see her. "It's Sofia. That you, Serana?"

"Yes. Can you move?"

Again Sofia moved her head an immediately regretted it as the simple motion threatened to make her sick again. "Not really."

"Neither can I. I woke up a little while ago but I can't move much more than my hands. It's wearing off slowly." For a few moments there was nothing but a quiet breathing from the ancient vampiress and Sofia tried to calm her stomach. "Do you know what took us?"

Trying and failing to suppress the memory of the pale creatures, Sofia shuddered and wiggled her fingers. "No idea. I've never seen anything like them before."

"Well, they obviously have plans for us and I don't think that we'll like whatever they are."

"Anyone else with us?"

"Mani and Sudi are in a cage… pen… thing on the other side of the cavern."

Taking her time moving her head in the direction Serana had mentioned, Sofia struggled to see through the darkness as her eyes slowly adjusted. There was enough light to see, but not well and she could tell that the cavern they were in was a dozen or so metres wide and containing several pens that made her think of pigsties. The connotations of that simple fact left her feeling colder than the ambient temperature did and she began trying harder to move.

"I definitely have a bad feeling about this." She said under her breath but Serana's vampirism allowed her to hear it clearly.

"Glad I'm not the only one. I think we need to get out of here quickly."

Forcing her unwilling arms to move and take her weight, Sofia slowly dragged herself upwards while struggling to keep what little remained in her stomach inside. The puncture in her stomach was tiny, barely anything more than a scratch but it burned from the poison. "Is there anything that you can do?"

"I can't concentrate enough to cast a spell. My head's spinning too much."

Using the strange, fleshy walls penning her in as support, Sofia pressed her back into them and tried not to think of how or where the leathery substance came from. "I think I'm the same. Can't you just go vampire or something?"

The silence from Serana was deafening and only the _drip-drip-drip_ of moisture falling from the mossy ceiling and the strange chittering and scuttling sounds from outside their pens could be heard. "I… can't." She said after some time.

"Too sick?"

Sofia gained the impression that Serana was shaking her head by the sounds of rustling that came from the adjacent pen. "No. It's just… I simply, _can't..._ I feel really weak at the moment too. This is worse than sunlight."

"Well, we better hope that Kaius or something comes and gets us before these things come back. Otherwise we might be in real trouble."

The minutes dragged on in silence as the two women tried to will their bodies into movement. There was a shuffling and dragging from Serana's pen as the vampiress recovered much quicker than Sofia, but while weakened she too was able to sit upright without vomiting everywhere. While her body was slowly recovering from the paralytic poison that she had been injected with, it was becoming harder to remain calm. The children were awake and while only a few metres separated them from the two women it was all too easy to hear Sudi's quiet sobbing and Mani's own panicky attempts to calm her. Sofia wouldn't admit it to anyone including herself but she was struggling to keep her own fear at bay, especially when one of the eyeless creatures reappeared at the gate made of sinew bound chitinous claws.

"Fuck." She breathed. "They're back."

"I know." Serana's voice was soft but there was no mistaking the way that the eyeless creatures could hear exceptionally well by the twitching of their ears. Within moments, the first was joined by several more that crowded into the cavern.

Dragging herself further upright, Sofia tried to concentrate her roiling brain on a spell, any spell and failed. "Feeling any better?"

"A little. I can stand if need be."

"Well, you might need to Serana. I'm about as useless as a two legged horse in here."

"We're going to have to wait for Kaius or the others. I can't help us..."

Something about the whole situation was eating its way into her reserves of calm and control and Sofia twisted her head in the direction of the vampiress' pen. "Can't help? You're a vampire aren't you? You're stronger and faster than me and anyone except for maybe Kaius! Right now you might be the only thing that can get us out of here!"

Drawn by the sound of her voice, one of the creatures peered through the gate and slapped it in the universal language of _"Shut up!"_ while hissing threateningly. There was no way that Sofia could mistake the way that its teeth were sharp and rotting, a clear sign that they ate meat.

"I'm sorry! I just can't!"

"Can't? or won't?"

More of the pale skinned beings shifted into the room and as far as Sofia could tell there were anywhere between half a dozen to a dozen crowding into the space between the pens. They were twitching and agitated, and the creeping sensation tip-toeing up her spine was growing ever more prominent.

"I can't!"

"Gods damn it Serana, pull your shit together! We're in trouble here!"

The vampiress' reply was inaudible over the growing sound of the hunchbacked creatures cavorting around the pens. Several would press their faces to the gaps in the gate, peering in and seeing the way that Sofia was trying to drag herself upwards before disappearing from sight again. Somehow she managed to force herself to her knees despite the way it felt like the earth was rolling like a ship in a storm but the new ability to see over the creatures didn't make her any better.

"Fuck! Serana! They're going for the kids!"

If she didn't know better, she would have put the nervous whimper from Serana's pen down to her imagination as she saw a trio of the creatures hauling back on the gate where Sudi and Mani were. Sudi was pressed into the far wall, crying in terror and still obviously sick from the poisons and her brother, while just as affected as Sofia and his sister was putting himself as best he could between her and the creatures. His own cries of terror and outrage were growing louder as they began forcing their way into the pen containing him and his sister, and they all broke out into a scuffle as they mobbed him.

"Hey! Hey you overgrown turds!" Staggering and almost falling over, Sofia kicked her own gate, which with the poison in her meant she hit with all the force of a light slap. "Leave them alone you pasty fucks!"

More than one was drawn to Sofia's voice and she tried not to shake at the way that their sightless faces turned in her direction. Their ears twitched with every sound and their loped across the rocky floor in the strange four limbed gait that was somewhat reminiscent of trolls, just sicklier and diseased in their motions. A number of them still pressed into the pen where Sudi was now shrieking as loud as her small lungs could manage and her brother was demonstrating how much foul language one could learn from a life on a ship.

There were too many, and even if she was armed and at her peak, Sofia knew that there was no way that she would have been able to face the dozens of creatures in the cavern. They were swarming out of one of the nearby tunnels in their twos and threes and the jerky and erratic, yet excited movements revealed all that she needed to know about what was happening.

Her pleas for help from Serana were lost to the growing noise within the cavern as her gate too was wrenched open by a collection of pallid, damp hands tipped in grimy talons. Despite her larger size, the poison in her blood weakened her and there was little she could do to stop them from forcing their way into her pen. The first reeled back as she simply punched it in the rotting hole of a mouth but before she could even pull herself back upright two more had forced their way in. Her clothes were torn under cracked and broken fingernails hooked into the shape of claws, and she even felt one of them take an experimental bite into her thigh before she jammed a knee into its throat. There were too many, and when the stabbing pain of another poisoned fang ran up her side she knew that it was almost all over.

The noise building from Serana's pen was somehow worse. The ancient vampiress was yelling, pleading and begging to the hunchbacked horrors but in the back of her mind Sofia somehow knew that Serana wasn't simply begging for her life. She was pleading with them in terror, but not in terror of what fate they represented for her and the others. There was a terror infusing her very soul that made the cannibalistic feast awaiting them all minor in comparison and her shouts grew louder and more desperate as more of them swarmed over her in response to her superior strength.

Still fighting with every breath, Sofia felt her legs stumble as hands pulled at her and she slipped and fell under the scrabbling mass. Claws plucked at her flesh and drew blood and more than one of the creatures ran cold tongues over the scratches as though savouring the taste of her flesh. She too was screaming and crying in fear and desperation but the sudden, bowel shaking roar that cut though the maelstrom of noise drowned out all other thoughts and emotions.

Dust was shaken from the ceiling and as a single entity, the dozens of the beings twisted their hateful expressions and twitching ears in the direction of Serana's pen, fear suddenly souring the air as their animalistic instincts alerted them to the threat in their midst.

Much further up the system of tunnels and following the tracks scoured into the bare rock, Kaius, Lydia and Habd stopped in place as the full throated roar reached them and made itself felt through their boots. Both Lydia and Habd paled at the sound as it plucked at their own instincts and Kaius stiffened as though he had been suddenly submerged into a frozen lake.

"What in the Sea God's name was that?" Habd hissed as the echoed sound faded into the depths of the world.

For the first time that evening Kaius appeared concerned, his heartrate suddenly increasing as he looked at them both. "Trouble." He said before starting to jog down the narrow tunnel.

* * *

In the aftermath of the roar, utter chaos had erupted in the cavern and those creatures that had been pinning her to the ground had scattered. Taking the brief respite as an opportunity that she wasn't going to waste, Sofia had hauled herself up on the waves of adrenaline and had staggered her way out of the open gate into the middle of a sea of corrupted beings. Their attention was no longer on her or Habd's children, but instead where solely focussed on the pen that Serana had been locked inside.

A new, more terrible fear was working its way through Sofia's guts as she staggered and tried her best to move quickly across the few short metres between her pen and the one containing Sudi and Mani. The sounds of fighting were impossible to ignore, especially as it grew louder by the second and was accompanied by a chorus or roars, squeals and chittering from the mass surrounding them. So focussed on the battle raging in Serana's pen, the horde simply ignored Sofia and the children which allowed her to make her way through the press and into the other pen without much hindrance. The roar was soon to be proven to be the first of many, and without thinking Sofia had practically tackled Mani and wrapped her arms around him and his sister in an effort to protect them from whatever was occurring.

Within the space of several heartbeats the cavern was devolving into a slaughterhouse. In her attempts to put both of the young teens into the corner of their pen for safety, Sofia caught glimpses of a sight unmatched by any of her worst nightmares. It was one Vaermina would have struggled to match and had nothing comparable as the thing that was once Serana began reaping the pale humanoids with relentless brutality.

A leg sailed through the air, followed by the broken remains of its owner as it was simply backhanded away. Another was gripped, twisted like a half melted taffy before being discarded. In the space of several seconds a dozen of the creatures had been killed and there was no sign of the slaughter ceasing. One had its head plucked as simply as Sofia would have picked a flower, and a ravenous maw opened and fastened around the ragged, spurting stump of a neck. A folded, yet extended wing, webbed and leathery like an enormous bat's and tipped in talons lashed out like a legionary's spear, punching through a creature's chest and lifting its squirming body from the floor.

More than one simply died, their bodies being torn to pieces or ripped apart with impossible strength. The speed that the creature moved at was almost too fast for the eye to see, which left the monsters that had taken them utterly defenceless to stave off their end. It ripped heads from shoulders, bit throats away and threw the empty corpses aside and pulled limbs from bodies as simply as plucking buttons from a shirt.

The animalistic fear driving the creatures overcome the courage provided by their numbers and in a flood of corruption they turned to flee. For most it was already far too late. As Sofia huddled down, shielding Mani and Sudi with her body she felt the mental punch of an almost overwhelming wave of magical energies that was unleashed. The raw telekinetic force extruded by Serana's winged form was a tsunami of pain for Sofia and through eyes weeping tears of agony she caught glimpses of a single gesture picking up one of the cowering creatures before crushing it into paste in the rocky ceiling, and another simply being folded into a gory ball. There was too much for the mind to handle, and with the renewed toxins weakening her limbs she closed her eyes and began praying to every god she could think of that it would be over quickly.


	5. Aftermath

Following the sounds of fighting, it had not taken long for Kaius, Lydia and Habd to come across the caverns that had been turned into a slaughterhouse of death. How many of the Falmer that had been killed was impossible to discern as many of the weren't complete enough to identify. Here and there, rent bodies of giant insects were also laying lifeless and ruined, their chitinous exoskeletons effortlessly peeled open like the pages of a book and insides strewn about.

The only noise other than the sickening gurgle of bodily fluids soaking into the rocky floor was the trio's shallow breathing as they tried their best not to breath in the stench. Even Kaius had his thick scarf wrapped around his mouth in an effort to mask the overpowering smells of ripped meat and torn bowels in the confines of the tunnels.

"What happened to them all?" Habd whispered, his voice muffled from following Kaius' example and wrapping a strip of cloth around his mouth and nose.

"I'm guessing they lost control of one of their pets." An armoured boot nudged the torn open body of one of the giant insects nearby and Kaius motioned to the mess around them. "Chaurus can grow to enormous sizes, but they can't be tamed like a dog or a cow. They can go wild from time to time."

Lydia's face revealed nothing but there was enough understanding in her eyes that Kaius was outright lying for both Habd's sake and to hide the truth.

"A _bug_ did all this?"

Shrugging, Kaius turned with a magelight held in the palm of his hand illuminating the fact that there was barely a centimetre of floor that wasn't covered in gore and viscera. "The chaurus 'Reapers' can grow several times larger than a cow, almost as large as a mammoth. It's possible..."

"Over there." Gesturing with the head of her axe, Lydia shifted and moved over to the pen-cage made of chitin and stone supports and tanned hides wrapped between them. There was movement within it that was not Falmer or their insectoid pets.

Almost shoving Kaius out of his way in his haste, Habd rushed forward and wrapped his arms around his children with tears freely flowing down his cheeks and into his beard. Mani and Sudi were both looking extremely pale as their bodies overcome the poison used to steal them from their beds but out of them all it was Sofia who looked the worst.

Froth had accumulated in the corners of her mouth and her flesh had a sickly green-grey tinge to it from the additional chaurus fang she had been stabbed with. Her eyes especially were glassy and slowly trying to focus on the magelight that Kaius pressed into the pen.

"About time you showed up." She whispered, her voice an echo of pain and sickness.

"We came as fast as we could." He replied, kneeling over her and quickly checking her wounds. Only Lydia seemed to see the slight way that his body relaxed as he made sure that Sofia wasn't in any real danger. She was going to be sick for some time but she would survive. "What happened?"

For one of the rare times in her life, Sofia was completely lost for words and simply opened and closed her mouth like a fish before shrugging hopelessly.

"Serana?"

The glassy eyes gestured towards the darkened mouth of a tunnel opposite the one that they had entered and Kaius and Lydia gazed into the inky depths where it descended further into the ground. There was enough emotion in Sofia's eyes that told Kaius all that he needed to know. He turned to Lydia after pressing a crushed up mixture from a pouch on his belt into the pair of punctures on Sofia's side.

"Can you take them all back?"

Lydia nodded, eyes cold inside her helm. "What will you do?"

"I'm not leaving Serana down here." His broadsword slid free of its scabbard and he habitually tested its edge with a thumb. Such a motion seemed strangely calming to both Lydia and Sofia despite his habit of only doing so before he expected a serious fight.

Habd scooped up his daughter into his arms and helped his son rise to his feet while acting as a crutch of sorts for the unsteady teenager. There was too much emotion in his eyes and choking his throat to say anything, but the bright eyed girl resting her head on his shoulder gave a tiny smile to Kaius as he turned to walk towards the tunnel.

"Please don't hurt the good monster." She said quietly.

Again Kaius stiffened, but he somehow managed to force a smile onto his face, nodding to the young girl and his housecarl gathering up Sofia into her arms before travelling into the darkness.

The sound of Habd and Lydia taking his children and Sofia to the surface was lost to the winding tunnels and every step that Kaius took was covered in death. The Falmer had been utterly annihilated and his vampiric senses were telling him that there was nothing left alive in these tunnels. His experience with such beings allowed him to guess that this was only a small nest, not even capable of being compared to a surface village in terms of numbers. Of the dozen or so family groups not a single one of them survived the carnage that Serana had enacted upon them.

Further away from the flesh-pens he came across the destroyed ruins of what used to be the communal portion of the Falmer nest. The individual tent-nests were ripped and destroyed, the breeding females killed and even the spawnlings had been left as corpses. Only with his vampiric nature could he tell that many of them had been entirely drained of blood despite the sheer amount of the liquid running in streams and pooling in cavities in the rock. The alpha male was only identifiable by its scent alone, as whatever Serana had done to it had left it little more than pulp smeared into the floor and walls and the lingering taste of magicka in the air.

He had seen slaughters like this before during his long life, several of which he had been directly responsible for. It was somehow strange to be witnessing this when he wasn't the cause of such wanton destruction but there was no pity for Falmer in his heart or mind. They were worse than animals and the fate that Sofia and the children had narrowly missed awaited all surfacers unless they were exterminated like this nest.

So thorough had her blood lust been that he was partially surprised that she hadn't killed off the poisonous moss and fungi that the Falmer cultivated to supplement their diet of flesh. There had been nothing the Falmer could have done short of collapsing the entire network of tunnels to stop her, and it was near a naturally occurring rent spearing through the bones of Nirn that he finally tracked her down.

Surrounded by death, there wasn't a single centimetre of flesh visible under the layers of gore that she had been coated in. It clung to the shredded remains of her clothing that hung loosely over her shoulders, was caked into her hair and smeared into her pale skin. As he carefully picked his way through the broken bodies and scattered limbs he could see the soft, pale skin and perfect musculature of her back and shoulder blades through the rips in her tunic. She was on her knees, hunched over and twitching in the middle of the pile, and from the sounds she was alternatively eating and draining some of the remains.

"Serana?"

His use of her name stopped her and as she twisted he could see the way the vampire was surfaced. The pair of eyes that burned into his were pools of corrupted fire in a mask of unceasing hatred. There was little of the woman left in her visage as the bones of her skull were pushing forward, fangs glinting in the shadows and her nose twisted and flared like that of a giant bat's.

Releasing his own hold on his darker side, his face restructured itself and twisted into a visage of vampiric corruption that mirrored, but did not match her own. His brow jutted outwards as though he was about to grow horns, every tooth tapering to a point and jaw unhinging like a serpent's as he returned her growl.

Lost to the darkness, the vampire within her identified the other of its kind standing in plate steel and almost like a wolf sensing an alpha of its kind it acquiesced to him. That tiny chink in its iron grip on her mind allowed the woman within to return and like bursting from under the frozen surface of a lake Serana gasped and became human once more.

The severed limb she had been gnawing on dropped to the floor with a squelch and she stared in horror at the sheer amount of death that she was literally sitting in. There was barely a single spot free of blood and as her blue-green eyes met Kaius' there was suffering where there had only been hatred and blood lust seconds before.

Unfastening his cloak, he quickly wrapped it around Serana as she sat in silence with self-loathing filling her features. For a moment she tried desperately to say something, anything to Kaius as he knelt down and simply picked her up.

"Let's get you out of here." He said softly, feeling the way that every muscle in her body was as taut as steel as he turned and began making his way back to the surface.

* * *

For those who hadn't tasted Falmer poisons it was a long, sleepless night as they cared for those who had and attempted to clean up after the attack. The bodies of those killed on the second floor were dragged downstairs by Kaius after he had provided his alchemical expertise and restoration magicka to those who needed it. The poisons were thankfully short lived, the chaurus venom used by the giant insects for paralysing but not killing their prey. It would be a few days before Ramati, the children and Sofia especially to be fully healthy once more but they were alive, and other than the inevitable nightmares they would make full recoveries.

The tunnel leading into the basement posed a serious problem for the family and Habd had been obviously mulling over the problem and contending with the possibility that he and his family may have to give up the home they had worked their lives for. It was only when Kaius approached him after disposing of the dead Falmer into the tunnel that he was provided with some of the only good news from the events of the night. Together they travelled back into the death filled tunnels, and with Habd as his witness, Kaius utilised the Thu'um.

Neither man spoke of exactly what Kaius had down in the dark depths, but Habd returned looking a lot more confident after the ominous rumbling finally died away. Ramati had regained consciousness shortly before he returned from the second trip and while she was suspicious, she accepted his simple statement of _"the tunnels are sealed for good"_ from her husband.

Sudi and Mani, while still sick and suffering from shock were positively beaming at Kaius and his companions. Neither of them truly understood what had happened in the tunnels and the shock was allowing them to fill in the gaps in the memories with whatever they thought was the truth. That something had slaughtered the Falmer and chaurus was not deniable, but in the utter pandemonium that had occurred when Serana had lost control neither of them had truly put the pieces together to understand what had really happened. All they truly remember seeing was Kaius, Lydia and their father coming to their rescue, and Kaius entering the bowels of the earth to return with Serana in his arms. To them, and their parents to a lesser degree it had simply proven the stories of his heroism and his growing legend.

With Sofia still sick and the family recovering, they stayed for an additional night beyond the first as Kaius and Lydia assisted Habd in caring for the others and repairing and cleaning the damages and blood from their home. It would take some time before the smell of dead Falmer was truly removed but they would be able to live confidently that the foul creatures wouldn't be returning in the same fashion. Kaius had briefly explained that those they had encountered had been a small tribe that for whatever reason had managed to squeeze their way up from the caverns beneath the surface. By their numbers they had appeared to have been settled there for a few years, or long enough for their chaurus pets to burrow through the rock under the lighthouse and taking advantage of the cracks and crevices offered by the sea cliffs. The same storm that had driven him and his companions to take shelter in the Lighthouse had also allowed the Falmer to dig the last metres to the foundations, and break their way in.

By dawn the day after the night of terrors, Sofia and the others had recovered enough that they continue on in their journey to the east and the College of Winterhold. It was only a few short hours to Hob's fall to gather further supplies, and the family stood in the fresh snow outside of the Lighthouse as their guests prepared to leave.

"Tava's blessings on you all Kaius. If you all need a place to stay on your return you know where to find one."

Shaking the retired sailor's hand, Kaius grinned. "Hopefully next time you won't provide us with as much entertainment?"

Their smile was mutual but still shadowed with darkness. Neither of them believed that the family would ever feel as safe as they used to in their home but there was a confidence instilled in them after surviving such an event.

"Look after yourselves." Kaius said, nodding to Habd, Ramati and their children in turn. "_**Talos' kogaan nau hi.**_"

The rumble from the spoken Dovahzul shook the layers of snow around his feet and left the family grinning as he turned to look over his companions. Sofia still looked exceptionally pale but she was able to stand without aid, Lydia was fully dressed and ready for anything in her customary fashion, and Serana stood hooded and cloaked, quieter than normal and almost appearing subdued despite her excitement to be travelling once more.

With his eyes straying on Serana, Kaius gave a confident grin to the three women before waving to the family. "How's everyone feeling? Ready for a bit of a walk?"

One hand holding onto the leather strap of her travelling pack, Lydia rolled her shoulders to make it more comfortable. She looked between them all before giving Kaius a grim smile that almost didn't exist at all, especially when Sofia began muttering about how her legs were tired and she needed to be carried.

"I think we will be okay," She said, brushing off Sofia's attempts to climb onto her back. "_My thane..._"

* * *

Talos' kogaan nau hi - Talos' blessing upon you (Dovahzul)


End file.
